Mr. Tom Deegan:

The Department receives between 25 and 35 complaints on a weekly basis about schools generally. Most of these are about bullying; some relate to the schools themselves, school management or the boards of management of schools and certain related aspects.

The matter of investigating complaints was raised. The Department has no role in investigating the actions of a board of management. The Department is neither empowered nor entitled to investigate a board of management or direct a board of management to do anything in response. All the Department can do for complainants in respect of boards of management is to advise them of the situation - that is to say, the board of management manages the school on behalf of the patron and, therefore, failing satisfaction at board of management or patron level, parents or other complainants are entitled to approach the Ombudsman for Children about concerns they have relating to anything involving their child, including in a school.